


Of Wizards and Travelers

by Skellington101



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Actual Spells!, Character Study, Despite only knowing the Traveler for zero days, Funny, Gen, Humor, I nearly forget they are both powerful, It's like I'm putting them in a jar and violently shaking it, Long-Suffering Yussa, Mischief, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Silly, Since it's D&D, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 03:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17460050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skellington101/pseuds/Skellington101
Summary: Perhaps, one can never be too careful in dealings with foreign deities, if their mentions of Uk'otoa and this "Traveler" are to be considered. Maybe after centuries of living, he should have been more cautious. But it's certainly too late now. If the hideous pink and yellow drapes, furniture made out of candy, and rearranged books are a sign.In which Yussa is too old and entirely done with any and all pranks, and the Traveler is a mischievous, Chaotic Neutral housecat.





	1. In which Yussa is old and can't handle this shit

**Author's Note:**

> So I wasn't sure how to spell the names since the characters are so new, but I saw the opportunity and I took it. You can pry it from my reluctant hands (which means until Matt says otherwise) So, sorry, Little Funky, Fancy Goblin Assistant (which was close to Wensva or Wensworth, idk) doesn't have a name until I can get confirmation and if the spelling of Yussa is different, then I will change it. 
> 
> I don't know where this idea came from, but I hope you'll enjoy!

 

Strange things were happening in Tidepeak.

 

Now, that wouldn’t be surprising as it is, and yet, Yussa had not ever witnessed magic like the one that began to permeate the foundations of the building. He studied many types of magic from countless artifacts, books, and relics. His age attested his experience and wisdom, though he apparently still has much to learn, according to the recent unscheduled visit.

 

Vibrant green mist lurked at the peripheral of his vision, lax swirls and jagged bolts floating vacantly in the empty air. Laughter, giggles, and chuckles rang out softly, teasing his ears and evading his eyes.

 

He turned to see the same oak bookshelf by his desk… Only, the books not in the same way he had left them. Spines were flipped around, others were stacked on their sides or balanced very precariously. He growled faintly, a frustrated huff escaping his lips before he hastily gathered his notes and slipped out the doorway. His steps were hasty and uneven while he kept on tripping on robes that had been magically lengthened.

 

For the past four days, hapless and completely mystifying events kept occurring around the tower. _Pranks_ , at that. Small tricks that ultimately did little damage and yet bothered him all the same.

 

Books lifting off shelves and rearranging themselves into phallic shapes with their spine colors, small drawings of a cartoonish penis on his spell parchment, moving the furniture merely two inches to the left than what he’s used to and he was constantly bumping into _everything_.

 

His teapot turned into a crab and snapped at him halfway through boiling and then changed back, the wardrobe had gained eyes and a slobbering mouth that he sealed away in a room until he could get his spells back, and his (thankfully blank) paper burst into colorful confetti.

 

He had not been able to complete any research, collect any data from the spherical mechanism, or make a single cup of tea. Normally, he would be quite tolerant, if only to learn of what force was wreaking havoc with his already messily-organized workspace. But, at the end of his rope after _endless_ chaos, it was all he could do to keep his carefully composed act together and not scream ‘ _fuck’._

 

Sure, Yussa was curious about how the magic could even affect objects he kept at the top of the tower under sealed enchantments. The “fun ball,” for instance. As soon as he put it away, the object appeared right back on his desk. After the sixth time, he left it where it was.

 

That’s what he assumed had been causing the disorder, but he is entirely proven wrong when things outside of the room began changing and his robes turned _bright pink_.

 

It was absolutely ridiculous and, if he were dealing with the Clovis Concord, utterly mortifying. As it is, he’s had enough mishaps in the tower that this is not actually the most embarrassing thing that has occurred with his years of intelligence. If he can find the source of it, that is. He did not really know if it would get worse at that point. He really should not have said anything

 

The wizard reached his bedroom, thankfully seeming untouched by the chaos. He grabbed another copy of the same book that he accidentally left downstairs in his haste and opened it to flip to his last page.

 

He learned long ago that running back and forth between over two dozen floors was far too troubling than needed, even for the small goblin assistant he hired for it. So, he had gotten them copied, for convenience purposes. Of course, a failsafe was in place to keep the book out of unknown hands, but-

 

He blinked once. Twice. Three times. The entire page was in a foreign language. His eyes widened in disbelief and he frantically tried to flip through the rest of the book, only to discover the rest of the changed pages. The old man slouched into the comfy armchair, hopelessness and frustration finally reaching its peak as he fisted his hands in his stark-white hair.

 

“I’m done,” Yussa muttered, “that’s it, I’m done.”  He pried his aged body out of the chair and left the room. Somewhere else, he figured, at least one place in this damn tower should have some peace.

 

Thinking this, he knew he probably jinxed himself since, right at that moment, he walked by a secondary laboratory and ritual space. He stared at the alchemy table and research papers sitting in a neat pile, upside-down, _on the ceiling_. Nope, nope. He did not even want to know if it’s permanent or not.

 

Yussa trudged wearily up the stairs, decades of age hitting him all at once in his distress. He did not think anybody would hear if he screamed from the top of the tower, as tactless as it might be.

 

Downstairs, a ripple of forest green magic whirled lazily around a statue.

 

The small statuette, carefully carved and detailed, sat on the wooden coffee table in his living room. Though unseen, emerald eyes flashed beneath the hood, an amused chuckle echoing faintly around the room.

 

\---

 

A small, well-dressed Goblin walked into the living room, new curtains in hand and cleaning supplies ready to clean up the place. He readjusted his spectacles and mentally listed his tasks, ready to start.

 

Yet, something drew his attention away from the brash curtain colors and he placed his stuff on a nearby side table. A sharp presence, something he didn’t _usually_ feel unless Yussa was doing some odd experiment or some other weird spell, called to him.

 

He scanned the room, looking for anything else out of place until his eyes caught the small figurine on the table with a sparkly paper booklet underneath it.  Dimly glowing, green eyes drew him in closer till he realized he had moved right in front of it. Then, the goblin started when he realized there was a _person_ sitting on the couch behind the table. 

 

The man in the hood tilted his head upwards, only a playfully amused smile visible. “Hello.” He greeted.


	2. Chaos is fun and Organization sucks, who likes plans?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yussa learns about the Traveler. And things are still not yet cleared up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya! I got buried in schoolwork, so it was chaotic for a bit. I then lost inspiration for a bit, but this new episode caught my attention once more, and so I will post more of ever-suffering Yussa and the mischievous Traveler! I'm working on multiple chapters at once, so if one takes longer to post than the other, it's because I don't ever write stuff in chronological order. 
> 
> Onwards to reading!

By the time he realized where the magic was emanating from, he felt a little wary at the prospect of a foreign deity playing tricks on him. Wentsworth had eagerly caught his attention, pointing to the small carved figure in the living room. He had never bothered to take it nor move it somewhere else, thinking he would give it back to the Mighty Nein if they came back. (Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he hoped he did not make a big mistake. One that was already haunting him now.)

  
But, small pamphlet in hand, Yussa would at least attempt to learn about it before it turned the whole tower upside-down. Again. Tidepeak wouldn’t be able to handle it a third time.    


 

As he flipped to the first page and onwards, his white eyebrows rose higher and higher in disbelief.  _ Have you ever heard of THE TRAVELER??? _ , the pamphlet read with little stars and hearts doodled around the name.  _ If not, you’re in the greatest luck EVER!!!! He is the deity for you!!! _

 

The concept of The Traveler was that of a trickster, one who enjoys chaos and pranks, but also to maintain the balance for society to exist, as the blue tiefling—Jester, was it?—detailed in her disorderly and colorful booklet. Small drawings and doodles littered the edges and the words were drawn in admittedly beautiful calligraphy. Glitter enhanced each small image, those being of small unicorns, phallic objects, and a figure in a forest-green cloak.

 

It was quite intriguing, for one. As for another, the Traveler had to have been a more recent entity, for there are no passages marked in several refined history books and an entity with such an influence as he would gain far larger attention if he were more popular. Then again, the strict enforcement of religion was bound to erase some deities from known history unless they had a large enough influence.

 

Yussa huffed, slipping the pamphlet closed. It helped, to read the small booklet, but only marginally. Nothing on how to deal with him, but enough to grasp what kind of entity he was. But entities with power could be corrupt as was the case with Cerberus Assembly and many other organizations. 

 

The old wizard stood, golden robes shimmering as he gathered the statue and pamphlet and walked to the stairway. But before he did, he felt a presence gather itself in the far corner of the room. He froze, tanned hands twitching for his component pouch and a spell incantation on his lips. 

 

But a small wisp of vibrant green magic drifted into his view, arcing in a small loop back towards the main room. A faint chuckle whispered in his ear and he twitched, relaxing his body but keeping alert.

 

“Hello, there...Is there any reason you have decided to...pull  _ pranks  _ in my Tower?” He waited a moment or two. No response. He turned his back and looked to the corner, but the presence disappeared and nothing was there.

 

With a shake of his head, Yussa rotated back around, only to see pink ribbons lining the railings. Words decorated the walls, a mix of gibberish and phrases.  _ Welcome to the Mighty Nein _ ,  _ Hello _ ,  _ Fjord is swallowing balls again _ ,  _ Your people did this _ , and many others. He marveled at the work, the handwriting varying from a neat cursive to a chicken scrawl. It was done in mere moments, he suspected that most, if not all, of the phrases had to do with the Mighty Nein and committed the phrases to memory to write down. Another blink of his eyes and the words vanished, leaving only bright pink ribbon behind. 

 

A strange deity, indeed.

* * *

 

And this was when events got even more perplexing. At first, the pranks were just that, pranks. They interfered with his work and bothered him to no end, ended up permanently disfiguring some items, improved others. The entity even resorted to illusions for the most part. Something harmless, only temporary. Though, it was a bit of a shock when the book he was using while consulting with a recent client had turned into a turtle, snapped at him, and turned back. Easy enough to explain weird events like that in a magic tower most people think is cursed. 

 

But now, in the middle of his workspace was a small pastry. A little, green card stuck out from underneath, with  _ From the Traveler _ scrawled in golden cursive on it. 

 

He stared at the card, waved it around a little. Poked at the pastry. Wasted a couple of spell slots on it. Eventually, he set it aside in favor of his work for the moment but wrote down a hasty note to deal with it in a bit.

 

Hours passed, and he quickly forgot about the pastry, but not the deity. A small thought was lingering in his mind and it kept distracting him from his work. He pondered it while sifting through spell parchment and Wentsworth went in and out of each room for his tasks. 

 

Was it another trick? Was there something for the Traveler to gain from pranking and then gifting him things? The Traveler’s nature is to retain balance, an equal amount of chaos and order. Though his definition of order is skewed, he wouldn’t deny that it is far more benign than other deities.

 

“Uh, sir,” Wentsworth announced, starting Yussa out of his train of thought, “it is now midnight if you would like to rest for the night.” The regal goblin tapped the doorway and straightened his formal outfit, strangely wearing a bright green and orange polka-dot bowtie.

 

The older wizard blinked once, white hair covering a portion of his vision, before he stood and closed the text in front of him wearily. “Yes,” he muttered quietly, “you may be right about that.” 

 

The pastry was still on the desk. With a flick of his wrist, he snuffed out the candles and, after a moment, he took the pastry with him. 

 

A short journey up the stairs led him to his bedroom. He opened the door to the bedroom and surveyed the furnishings. The bedspreads had been turned a brilliant pink and orange in stripes, but now, they were the normal elegant beige-gold patterns. All the books were in the familiar order he had them in before the recent fiasco, and there was not one irritating prank to be found. But a small card was on the nightstand. Suspicious. 

 

He kept one hand near a certain component as he set the pastry down next to it. The card read “Boo!” in a golden scrawl and Yussa only had a moment to be overwhelmingly irritated by it before a voice behind him spoke. 

 

“Behind you…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Duhn, duhn, duhn! I think that by this point, Yussa wants to ignore him and get on with the rest of his existence, but the Traveler won't allow it. This is giving me so many ideas! Also, I can't wait for Yussa and the Traveler to start gossiping over The Mighty Nein Disasters. I might play around with some high-level spells, to give me more story material and add more onto Yussa's character. I forget stuff about the Cerberus Assembly and the Clovis Concord, so it might be a bit until I can get another chapter out. (the wiki still spells his name with an h, grr)


	3. Traveler get the hell out of my Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yussa meets the Traveler. It does not go how anyone expects, and yet it is entirely expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not posting in so long! It's kinda hard to write these types of characters. They kinda both have lots of cunning, or so I think, and trying to write out their dialogue with each other is hard and kinda easy at the same time. Either way, I don't really know what Yussa's intentions are yet, but we're bullshitting along the way, so it's fine.
> 
> We got to see Yussa again!! I'm soo glad I stayed to watch the episode even though I did skip a couple. It gave me more insight into his character, he's still threatening, but hey, he just seems like he wants no trouble and wants to mess with the Crazy Funball. Trust me, we'll see that in later chapters!

 

Yussa turned ever so slowly, a pulse of evocation magic swirling in the palm of one hand and the other inching for the components tucked away in his robe. Verdant irises gleamed under a shadowed hood, only a small smirk visible from the figure lounging on the couch. 

 

The Traveler drawled out, “Oh, hello there.”

 

Yussa took a moment to study the entity, sharp eyes scanning over every small detail. For a deity as dramatic as he was being, the flair of his outfit was minimal, the cloak shimmering until it set into a pleasant deep green shade. One hand peeked out and waved in a dramatic fashion, covered in foreign symbols and shapes. Curious. Yussa tilted his chin up and spoke, “So, you are the Traveler.”

 

Though he could not see the Traveler’s face, Yussa could tell he was grinning. “Yes, that is me. Unless you know of another?” Both of the Traveler’s hands came up and he pressed his fingertips together.

 

“I’m afraid I do not. Is there a reason you have been messing with Tidepeak as of recently? I would think a deity of your power could have better things to do.” The magic ebbed from his hand and he straightened up.

 

“A balance will do wonders for anyone. You, my dear, could do with balance. Since a follower has presented me with such a gift, I found it fit to visit the place it was situated.” Yussa twitched slightly at the pet name, but Yussa wouldn’t find himself deterred from his current predicament. 

 

“Is messing my tower what you call “balanced” or is that just the term you use to cover up your mischief? I hardly think all this chaos could be considered balanced. And why, may I ask, are you lingering around in my tower when your follower has left to go to unknown locations?” He scoffed lightly, sliding his hands into his sleeves. 

 

The Traveler chuckled, an unearthly sound that sent shivers down Yussa’s spine. “The... _ Mighty Nein _ will cause plenty of trouble enough for me, but some things require a more... _ personal _ touch. Jester is a  _ dear _ follower of mine, she knows of the balance of chaos and order. I guide my followers to the best of my ability and they can enact what I represent. I suppose my gift didn’t help, then? I do believe that I spotted a man far too comfortable in his breeches and decided that he may have been a perfect target.”

 

He glared as much as he could muster at the cloaked deity. “A target for graffiti, pranks, and minor destruction of personal property?”

 

“Too much order for such a powerful man left to rot in a small tower. Well, not _ left _ exactly. But, that’s semantics. Though, it did tip the scales perhaps a bit too far in one direction. You really do keep quite a collection, even some novels of the Age of Arcanum. Impressive, really.”

 

“That is not really an explanation, you know."

 

“And I do. I rarely get to meet one such as interesting as you, though there are many. I wouldn’t want that to go to waste, would I? Through chance, we may yet speak again.” And with a flourish of shiny sparkles and pops, he disappeared. A small pile of candies was left in his wake with a small, unfamiliar object tucked into the center, a bright glow emanating from it.

 

_ That was...less than ideal _ , Yussa thought irritatedly. If they  _ were _ to talk again, he wondered if it would be more informative. And perhaps less cryptic. There was a small glance towards his bed, knowing how late it was, but the encounter brushed the issue away fairly quickly.

 

Yussa bowed down next to the pile and used  _ mage hand _ to scoop up the item. Nothing happened. He collected the small candies and put them in an empty bowl on a side table before departing back down to his workspace to study the object.   
  


* * *

 

 

After even prestidigitating the rug in the bedroom, sparkles of glitter still shimmered whenever he looked down at it, sticking stubbornly to the fabric. Like the deity that was now plaguing his tower. 

 

He sighed, using one hand to rub his temple while casting  _ dispel magic _ with the other to try and fix the book in his lap. Even Regrimm didn’t cause this much trouble when he went on a prank streak. Though his old roguish friend did have Isdel to curb his tendencies or kick him when he was being too bothersome. He stretched in his seat before slumping back into it. 

 

It had been years since he thought about them. Then again, if he thought about  _ all _ of his traveling companions, he’d be sitting for far too long. His long lifespan granted him many adventures. And many funerals. It was a wonder he even got out alive. One more reason that he doesn’t often leave his tower anymore. 

 

He absentmindedly flipped through a few more pages, looking for some recognizable words, when a voice popped into his mind. 

 

In a familiar trilling accent, the voice spoke, "Hello! It's Jester! We are bringing that dodecahedron...with us...We're on our way tooooo...Xhorhas. Do you think it's dangerous? Should we not? Please respond to this message!” 

 

It took a little longer than it should have for the words to register and frustration began boiling in his chest. The absolute audacity for these people to walk straight into an unknown,  _ hostile _ territory carrying a  _ foreign _ artifact--!

 

If that other wizard, Caleb, had the sense to figure out his teleportation circle, then he  _ would _ take it from once they got back. He struggled to compose himself and responded, "Well, I would say it is, uh, not advised to give it up, to pull it out of your bag, uhhh, but who am I to keep you from bringing an artifact to the heart of danger?" The message ended on an almost-unnoticeable hysterical note, which was exactly how he felt about all this. 

 

First, this group who had brought the Traveler upon him, now they might get the continent blown off the face of the planet?  He groaned and stuffed the book into his face, hoping that  _ just maybe _ , he would be free of trouble-making  _ brats _ one day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you think the character would act in a different way or something, it's kinda hard to keep them in character when I don't really know too much about them!
> 
> Canon: Weirdly-threatening, powerful wizard in his mysterious Tower who might just attack the Mighty Nein for betraying the Empire; don't know a lot about him.  
> My version: Level 20 Wizard Yussa is ready to throw down and fight with the Traveler. He is 10000% done with all of this bullshit, just let him be an old man with his books.
> 
> You know what's really funny to me is that Matt made a point of mentioning that Yussa's stuff got moved around and that his door opens the other way, so either Yussa is doing all that magic by himself or he likes to spice up his life by changing the decor every so often. It makes my story look more in-canon too, that the Traveler messed with his shit.

**Author's Note:**

> I know some people saw him as evil, which I'm not entirely discounting. This is just some fun between two interesting characters, even if I'm bad at character analysis and they are both OOC. (I also can't listen to the conversation with him again until the youtube video uploads on Monday or I watch a rerun. But I posted it anyways.)


End file.
